Abstract: Recently, an incomplete mandible of anatomically modern Homo sapiens associated with abundant mammalian fossils has been recovered from the Homo sapiens Cave of Mulan Mountain, Chongzuo, Guangxi. In this study we describe the murid rodents of this site, which include 8 genera and 11 species: Mus pahari, Apodemus draco, Apodemus agrarius, Hapalomys cf. H. delacouri, Chiropodomys gliroides, Niviventer confucianus, Niviventer fulvescens, Leopoldamys edwardsi, Bandicota indica, Rattus norvegicus and Rattus losea. The murid species from the Homo sapiens Cave, all of which are still extant, are morphologically more advanced than those from the Early Pleistocene Sanhe Cave, Chongzuo and the Middle Pleistocene Geleshanian fauna found in the Sichuan-Guizhou area, but resemble those from the Late Pleistocene Wuyun Cave of Tiandong, Guangxi. The geological age of the Homo sapiens Cave fauna is estimated to be early Late Pleistocene based on this biostratigraphic correlation. U-series dating of the strata containing the human fossils gives an age of approximately 110ka BP. The murid assemblage is mainly made up of tropical-subtropical elements within the Oriental realm. Both shrub-dwelling and grass-dwelling murid species are comparatively abundant, indicating that the forest was shrinking while the shrub and grassland were expanding at the time the fossils were deposited. This evidence was probably the result of a comparatively dry climate.

Key words: Chongzuo Guangxi; Homo sapiens Cave of Mulan Mountain; Early Late Pleistocene; Muridae